Ecologists vs. the rest of the world

Last week I was at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting. If it isn't obvious by the name, this is a conference for ecologists. It's a week long conference of talks, posters and networking/socializing. If you are in any other field, you have probably been to conferences where people dress up nicely. Not so at ESA. In fact, if you are dressed up in say, a suit, you will stick out like a sore thumb. It's slightly more acceptable for the people moderating sessions or doing special presentations to be dressed up, but in general people are wearing shorts, tank tops or t-shirts, and sandals of the Teva, Choco or Birkenstock variety.

Now, I'm all for being comfortable. I wore flip flops for most of the week because I had blisters on my heels after one day of wearing "nice" flats. However, I think there is nothing wrong with looking nice at an annual meeting where you are presenting research, even if it is a bunch of ecologists who are uncomfortable being inside for too long. Realistically, there is no reason to wear pants that convert to shorts to a conference, unless your field site is right outside the convention center and you might need to check in after a few talks.

My first year of grad school some of the other grad students and I decided to start "Formal Friday," a grad student answer to "Casual Friday" in the workplace. We all look like crap most of the week, so we decided to dress up once a week. This consisted of maybe a button-down top, pants for the guys and a skirt or casual dress for the ladies. It didn't last the whole year, but we did have a Formal Party where people were supposed to come in spiffy clothes. It's fun, especially since we don't have many occasions to dress up given that we work outside most of the time. Conferences could be another place for ecologists to have fun dressing up. I propose that we ecologists look spiffy more often.

I will say I was pleasantly surprised to see a variety of bags to hold conference programs. Usually everyone walks around with the same matching ESA bag and during lunch breaks, all the conference-goers scatter around town with their matching bags. This year there were a lot of backpacks, purses, and other tote bags being used. I approve. We don't all have to match.